Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Conquering Fears

A few weeks ago Camden and I met some friends for a playdate at a local gymnastics center for preschool open gym.  They had trampolines, foam pits, bounce houses, and many other fun activities.  Much to my surprise, my normally brave, adventurous boy was scared and cried for about 45 minutes.  I was at a loss as he is normally not clingy or scared and never has meltdowns for that long!  After hearing him say "alligator get me" about 20 times, I finally put it together!  We attended a birthday party at My Gym where they did a story with puppets about an alligator getting monkeys and it freaked Camden out.  Then that Monday at storytime at the library, they did the same story...and the first bounce house you see in the gym had a big alligator on it!  It all began to make sense.  After I got Cam calmed down some, he had some fun, but was still very timid.  Today, I decided to take him back to face our fears and see if we could get past the scary alligator!  We talked about it and prayed about it before we went; I'm happy to report that it went much better.  My plan of action was to go right pass the alligator bounce house to some of the trampolines and work our way back to the "scary" bounce house.  Overall, Camden was way more adventurous and did not cry at all!  He was still a little scared of a few things, but seemed to have a great time.  I was so proud of my sweet boy conquering his fear!  *Sorry, all of these pictures are from my phone, so they aren't great!  Also, most of these are action shots so that explains the blurs!
Cam going through the inflatable obstacle course.
Climbing up the inflatable slide.
Down he goes!
Up again.
Rolling on the mats.
His favorite: the long trampoline, he loves to run down it and then crash on the mats!
A blurry Camden saying "Hi Mama" as he jumps/runs by!
Just jumping.
Crash.
Swinging over the foam pit.
Playing in the foam pits...he loved getting the balls out.
Kinda bouncing in the infamous alligator bounce house. :)
I guess it does look a little scary after all.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Life Lately

 Who sleeps like this?  How can it be comfortable?!?!
 Camden LOVES to jump!  Here he is about the jump off...
 and here is the "how cool am I face?"!
 Camden thinks that Toby's bus (he drives for baseball) is the coolest thing!  He loves to "drive" it whenever he gets a chance.
 Silly boy pretending to go "night night" in the tub.
 He loves to work puzzles at the library after we go to storytime. 
 Sweet boy!
 He likes to line things up these days and name the color of everything in sight!  He is right about 75% of the time.
 Oops!  This is what happens when Cam helps in the kitchen. :)
Watercolors.

Spring Break

Our Spring Break this year was filled with relaxing, house projects, baseball, doctor appointments, shopping, movies, watching lots of March Madness, golf, and camping.  Here's a look at our time camping with Nana, Papa, Aunt Kara, Mary Grace, and Garrett.
The boys cuddling with Nana and Papa while reading their bedtime story.
One day Daddy, Camden, Papa, Garrett, and Mary Grace went to explore my uncle's science supply company.  Camden is checking out crawfish in this pic!

Clearly Mary Grace doesn't take after her Aunt Mel!  I can't believe she held that!
Tadpoles!
Roasting his first marshmallow with Daddy!
Cam thought it was pretty cool to blow out the marshmallow on fire.
Lots of baseball was played!
Lucky me got to cuddle with both the boys!

Reading with Papa

Love this picture.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Busy Bags!

Several months ago my fellow lifegroup moms had a busy bag swap.  Each of us made 10 bags of the same activity and then we swapped to have 10 different activities to do with our kids.  When we first got the bags, Camden was still pretty young and not that interested; it has been fun to watch his interest and attention span grow over the past few months.  Most of the activities can be adapted for different ages to keep the challenge there!  This week, we did several of the busy bags; I love watching Camden concentrate hard on an activity and stick with a task until he gets it.  I am so thankful to have these to pull out on a cold, rainy day like today!
Putting beads on a pipecleaner...trickier than it looks!
He loves to zip and unzip each activity bag!
Sorting colored pasta into like groups...he always asks if he can eat it!
Opening and closing different things
Getting his felt person he calls "Camden" all dressed
Scooping pasta to find the hidden treasure!
Making his mini-book: stickers and coloring!
This is one of his favorites...he loves shapes!  Sorting the shapes into like pairs...
Sorting "Daddy's" tools into like groups...he is especially fond of the springs!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Saturday Morning Fun

Daddy had baseball games today, so Camden and I stayed in our "jammas" (as Cam says) most of the morning.  We watched some "Super Why" (his current favorite show), ate some cereal, and built some towers.  Camden had a blast building with these noodles!



Outside Fun!

Camden is quite the climber!  This makes Mama a little nervous, but he is very cautious too.

 Cam loves riding the animals at the park...he only stays on them about 5 seconds and is then on to the next!  His favorite is the duck.
My little man is not a huge fan of swings (I think he still doesn't like to be contained), but he is always a fan of these kind of swings.

We are LOVING the nice weather!!!